Tuesday, October 03, 2006

firstly I am going to type out Judith Woodmans reply to the request for the Councils properties to be accounted AS IF they were now in the hands of a housing association and then I will give a little reply. The rest as they say is up to you.Dear Mr. Gabriel

I am writing in response to your email dated 12 September 2006. I have investigated your concerns and can now provide you with the following information.

the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) reflects a statutory obligation to account separately for Local Authority housing provision, as defined in paticular in schedule 4 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. It is a record of expenditure and income relating to an Authority's own housing stock and the items to be credited and debited to the HRA are prescribed by statute.

The HRA for Cardiff County council is included in the Annual Statement of ACcounts and is set out as prescribed by the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK: a Statement of Recommended Practice.

With regards to your request for a set of accounts to be produced that have the current council stock as if it were owned by a Housing Association, I am afraid that I cannot provide this information. there is no stautory requirement for Cardiff county Council to restate the HRA as if the housing stock were owned by a Housing Association and I cannot approve that Council resourses be applied to such an exercise. In addition, information produced by such an exercise may be misleading and would not represent the true position of the HRA.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Judith Woodman.

I would like to first say, that out of all those in politics who I have sent innumerable emails to Judith has been the ONLY ONE who has consistently replied to them or who has acted upon request made of her, and is therefore in my less than humble oppinion worthy of her position.

Which is not unfortunately what I can say about the 484 House of Lords members who must look at their emails even when on Holiday Eh Crazydave? Yep! But appear not to give a Damn.

Or any member of the Welsh Assembly Government who very very very rarely if never reply infact they really really ought to be prosecuted for malfeasance charges chief constable and that does not just include Rhodri Morgans Government but opposition members as well who havent the good grace to reply, plus of course those elusive MP's.

OK that said, I realise that there is no statutory requirement to produce this set of accounts Judith, but one would assume given that the difference to the bottom line is likely to be £30 million don't cha think it outta be???

Have you ever considered Judith that the people who instigated the manner in which the rent revenue account was to be kept were more of the mind set that dispised those who were likely to become council tenants????

Then there is the manner of payment of housing benefit to private landlords and housing associations, I have been lead to believe from correspondence going back a number of years now that Central government pay 95% of housing benefit and that Local Government have to find the missing 5% to make up the difference, yet when I asked of the council accounts what percentage of the councils housing benefit was paid by central government they said they counld not tell me.

If I was tad brighter a maths I might figure it out myself, but then the ole rent revenue accounts a bit of weird thing what with one thing and another. But there is no way that a housing association or a private landlord would have in expenditure £30 million in rent rebates, no way, and seeing as how it is supposed to be central government who pay the housing benefit how can the council claim that it pays rent rebates?????

I have had the discription that the final figure of the accounts being up by this £30 million if set out as that of a housing association being MISLEADING by the local government ombudsman and the audit commission, but then like the environmental sound dudes who might have been to afraid that the remedy they suggested for the sound insulation problem at my home did not work, perhaps these organisations are afraid that should the public find out that the manner of keeping these accounts is inherently flawed and that they would have had greatley reduced rentals had these propeties not been in the hands of the council all these years what a HUE N CRY might NOW be raised.

I suggest it is that fear the fear of allowing this to have gone unnoticed or even encouraged that has us now in a situation due to the lack of good financial practice rentals in the private sector as they are OBSCENELY HIGH and Unnecessarily so.

(due in the main to financial mismanagement by our councils and central government, isn't paying one individual through housing benefit £432,000 per annum an obscentiy in itself infact some private landlords weekly rental payments are higher than the tenants weekly income via income support, the haves getting richer and the have not's getting poorer)

But then powerful forces would like to keep it that way, and the Chief Constable who allows for the water companies to excessively profit out of houses of multiple occupancy has as far as I am aware done nothing to question the manner in the keeping of the rent revenue account even though she is well aware of the banner requesting that the FRAUD SQUAD investigate these claims.

Now I am sure that given the data that housing associations have to produce in their 'statement of accounts' that it would not take alot of council time to figure out what their properties would yeild in the AS IF senario.

As your accounts dept. work with that kind of information on a daily basis, given that the people of Cardiff would have to ask 'where do we go from here' if indeed there is a £30 million shortfall and ask serious questions of central government over the manner in which they have been kept for the last god alone knows how many years to the detriment of all members of society.

Can Cardiff County Council take a lead????? and let the fallout happen, let people ask what would our housing provision have been like today if these accounts had not been played with in the manner that the Code of Practice has dictated for so long?????

Questions questions question!!! and Judith I might not have found myself having to continue to live in a property that the sound insulation still does not meet minimum levels under law, for the last 7 years and that indeed the finances are there so that I might be housed where my peaceful enjoyment is not violated as it has been in the past and as it has been this year.

Is this enough Ladies and Gentlemen to demand that said accounts be produced, is it enough that some kind of assistance be given so that I nolonger have the continued neglect of my home life by council officials????? I wonder, I also wonder what if anything any of you are thinking with regards the water charges on this property, and others much like it across this and all other cities on this Hallowed Isle

Hello PeopleI am updating this on fri 6/10/06 of the 75 county councillors of Cardiff County Council that received the blog Cardiff County councillors emailed see http://bbccrazydave.blogspot.com/ only 6 have so far replied. Isn't that amazing, does it make you wonder what they get up to, don't they have ward members whose lives would be made better if more forward thinking financial management went into housing??????Just thought I'd ask the question as today I will be posting this to them in an attempt to raise awareness.Love n Light People Crazydave